Pepper season is here!
This Week’s Share:
Potatoes
Garlic
Slicing Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Red Onions
Squash or Eggplant
Sweet and Bell Peppers
Choice: Shishitos or Okra or Poblanos or Chilis
Recipe:
Easy Pico de Gallo
With the bounty of tomatoes in the share this week, plus the cherry tomato field on U-pick, you probably need a lot of tomato recipes right now. Tomato toast for breakfast only used about half of one tomato! For an easy snack or main dish topping, make this pico de gallo with any of our tomatoes, garlic, onions, and hot peppers. Pictured here are the Veronas in the U-pick field. These are grape tomatoes with a little less water content than the supersweet cherries, which makes them a little better for eating fresh like this. Have fun picking and eating!
Notes from the Field
Everything is muddy, but everything is also growing tremendously well, producing tons of fruit, and we are keeping forward momentum despite the extreme humidity! Summer squash and zucchini is back in rotation, cucumbers are on pause for a few weeks while we wait for the next round to grow, and we are unearthing potatoes as fast as our amazing Tuesday volunteers can handle them! Pictured here is delicata squash, a delightful small winter squash that is still growing and ripening in the field for a few more weeks. Hard to believe, but now is prime time for all the fall and winter planting. Cabbages planted today will be in your shares about two months from now!
What’s on U-Pick?
Still lots of great zinnias, lemon basil, Thai basil, and Tulsi (tea) basil in the G field, in addition to big beautiful parsley and Italian basil!
Cherry tomatoes are on U-pick! Go down below the main parking lot through the big fence, and look for the red signs. Any type or color there is available, except the tomatillos. You are welcome to use a pint or quart box from us if needed as a picking vessel, but please return in the future so we can reuse it! There are:
Mountain Magic: red round jumbo sized cherries, juicy, great for salads
Green Zebra: fully ripe when they are yellow with bright green stripes, these taste citrusy and acidic
Sunpeach: small pink cherry tomatoes, AMAZING flavor
Citrine: tiny orange cherries, also the sweetest flavor in the field
Clementine: orange jumbo sized cherries, also called “cocktail” tomatoes, sweet and juicy and good for salads
Verona: The tried and true plum/grape tomato. Great flavor, also good for dehydrating, canning whole, or making a quick tomato sauce
And lots of awesome varieties of brownish, reddish, pinkish sunflowers too!
In the raised brick beds, also known as the Cleeland Garden:
Mint
Oregano
Calendula
Parsley
Greek Basil
Sorrel
Thyme, Sage, and Lemon Balm (to allow for healthy growback for these plants, pick the largest leaves from the outside, do not cut from the stem of the plant!)
In field “G” behind the pizza oven/parking lot:
Parsley
Italian Basil (the classic basil flavor)
Lemon Basil (looks like basil, smells and tastes strongly of lemon)
Thai Basil (dark purple flowers & stems, great for Asian recipes of many kinds)
Holy Basil (light purple flowers and stems, directly behind the Thai Basil, used for calming tea)
Any Flowers: Zinnias, Statice, Gomphrena, Celosia, and Strawflowers are still blooming!
Reminder that U-picking hours are Monday-Saturday, 8am-6pm. Please do not come to the farm on Sundays, as we do not have staff on site who can be available in case of an emergency. If the main gates are closed when you arrive you can follow the paved road to the right, and then follow the curve of the road back to the left. This will take you in a loop around the main deer-fenced area and up to the wash station/parking lot.